News Briefs for June 24, 2016
Stories from Germany, Loma Linda University, Jamaica, Ohio, Italy, Northern Caribbean University, Oakwood University and Adventist University of Health Sciences.
In the wake of heavy rains and flooding, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) branch in Germany is providing equipment to dry out homes and small businesses to towns in Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Some 300 industrial capacity piece of equipment have been made available by ADRA, including room dryers, heathers and pressure washers.
Chaplain Nelu Nedelea is the recipient of the 2016 President’s Award at Loma Linda University (LLU). He is completing a master’s degree in chaplaincy in the School of Religion. He has been an Adventist pastor in Romania where he was born and raised, and in British Columbia, Canada. He was ordained in 2009 in Europe and is currently working on a one-year chaplain residency at LLU Medical Center.
Sunday (June 19) Glenroy Sinclair, a well known journalist for the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, was buried after a funeral at the New Haven Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kingston, announced the official Jamaica Information Service. He was a “tender-hearted philosopher,” said Pastor Merric Wilson. The Hon. Olivia “Babsy” Grange, cabinet minister for culture in the national government, stated; “He walked with power brokers, but he never forgot his duty to protect the common people from the dangers of elitism.” Rohan Powell, secretary of the Press Association of Jamaica, also paid tribute to Sinclair.
The campus of Mount Vernon Academy was sold at auction for $1,595,000 with the bids opened and sale approved at a joint meeting of the academy board and the Ohio Conference executive committee on Wednesday (June 22). “The money will be used to reduce the debt owed by [the school] and to further Adventist Christian education in Ohio,” stated Pastor Ron Halvorsen, the conference president and chairman of the academy board. The campus consisted of 241 acres and 13 buildings, as well as 227 acres of farmland, woods and recreational land. Another auction in about six weeks will sell off the equipment and furniture left over after sharing with the schools and churches in the conference.
An Adventist observer attended a meeting of representatives from the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy and Italian [Catholic] Bishops Conference recently. The meeting was in preparation for a larger gathering in November with goal of increasing awareness of the history of Protestant faith in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation, sharing future perspectives from both sides and plans for cooperation in humanitarian activities. Pastor David Romano attended from the Italian Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Others at the meeting included Pastor Eugenio Bernardini from the Waldensian Evangelical Church, Deacon Allesandra Trotta from the Methodist Evangelical Church (which have about 35,000 adherents together), Pastor Luca M. Negro from the Baptist Evangelical Christian Union of Italy (about 15,000 adherents), Pastor Marcus Friedrich of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy (about 7,000 adherents), Monsignor Ambrogio Spreafico represented the Catholic bishops which claim about 99 percent of Italians as believers. The Federation of Pentecostal Churches (with maybe 50,000 adherents) was also invited to the meeting. There are about 25,000 Adventists in Italy, according to Wikipedia.
Dr. Lincoln Edwards has been named president of Northern Caribbean University (NCU), the Adventist institution in Jamaica, reports News Americas. He is an associate professor in the School of Dentistry at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston. He is a graduate of Loma Linda University, secretary of the American Dental Education Association section on oral diagnosis and “an experienced lay preacher” in the Adventist denomination, the news publication also reported. He was born and raised in Jamaica and will replace Dr. Trevor Gardner who is retiring in August.
Both Oakwood University and the Adventist University of Health Sciences (ADU) are expanding educational programs offered via the Internet. ADU in Orlando (Florida) will offer two new master of health administration (MHA) degrees later this year. The MHA in strategy and innovation can be entered both by students with bachelor’s and associate degrees and can be completed in as few as 24 months. The Executive MHA is designed for health care managers with a bachelor’s degree and a minimum of three years of experience. It can be completed in as little as 19 months. Both are fully accredited and all the work is completed on line through the systems offered by the Pearson Company. Pearson has provided support for ADU graduate more than 3,600 bachelor degrees since 2001. Oakwood in Huntsville (Alabama) has been approved by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) to provide accredited college courses to students in 40 U.S. states, announced Dr. Karen Benn-Marshall, academic vice president, yesterday. For more information about Oakwood Online University, call Dr. Keith Burton at (256) 726-7883 or contact him via Email at kburton@oakwood.edu.
